Hey Fen! Nice to see you here!
And thanks for reading! After meeting you guys, it makes me a bit more embarrassed seeing you read my stuff for some reason.
And I can't imagine what "reference" you might be talking about...
It's not like I've been anywhere interesting lately...
To the rest of you... Thanks for continuing to read!!
I see a couple of you mentioned Mano specifically, which kinda surprised me since she didn't really do anything in this chapter.
Well... if you like seeing her... there might be more in the coming chapter to keep you entertained.
And I'm sure Aika won't end up shooting Reina... unless the gun accidentally slips or something...
Anyway, onward ho! This chapter's a bit longer, but still nothing like my usual standards. Enjoy.
Chapter 4Aika leaned heavily against the chain of the fence beside the front gate to the school. The day wasn’t far from over, but she might still be able to catch a class or two. Chinami had likely become worried about her, and who knew what Miyabi would do.
It felt like she’d had eyes watching her every step the whole way to her house while she carried that gun, it feeling very heavy at her side, and even after she stowed it there to return to campus she couldn’t shake a feeling of unease. She couldn’t believe how she’d conducted herself in that crack house – she’d really punched Takahashi-dono in the face and Tanaka-dono in the stomach! That would be quite the story to brag to the others if there was the slightest chance they’d believe her. It was only after she’d left that she thought about all the people it was generally known they’d cut down in cold blood between the two of them.
She wondered if she might not have been luckier had the same happened to her instead.
There was just something about being in that place… being around all those dangerous people… alone… It gave her a sense of power, that
she could hold her own there, that
she could actually mean something. And what did it
really mean? That was something she was doing her best not to dwell all that much on.
After hurdling the gate again, she crept along the wall to a side door, and took a peek in before opening it and stepping inside. The hallway was empty, with just the muffled sounds of classes being conducted behind closed doors at its sides. She made her way quickly toward the history class that she was fifteen minutes late for, but after turning a corner about halfway there, she found herself facing an older man in a somewhat leisurely-looking office suit.
Crap… she thought to herself, meeting the principal’s eyes.
“What are you doing loitering out in the halls during class-time?” the man asked in a disapproving manner.
“I was… I was just…” Aika stuttered, no hint of her smoothness in the midst of the crack den present any longer, “…I had to go to the bathroom.”
“I see…” the man said, looking down his nose through his glasses, and he pulled out a small notepad from his shirt pocket. “I presume you have your hall pass?” he asked, already scribbling at it.
“Um…” Aika replied, at a loss.
“Why am I not surprised?” he continued, in a very unsurprised tone. “You punks think you can get away with anything around here… Someone’s gotta teach you the limits of
rules. One… detention…” he spoke as he wrote. He glanced up through his bifocals at Aika’s face again, and his eyebrows furrowed as if he just realized who he was talking to and was mildly surprised. “Miss Aika… Mitsu…”
Before he finished her name though, Aika felt an arm encircle her shoulders. She flinched, reflexively trying to pull away, but the grip held her fast.
“Why Doctor Nguyen, I was looking for you!” a girl said in a light, sweet voice from her side.
The man looked up, at first frowning at the interruption, but seemed slightly taken aback when he took in the sight before him. A smile broke out above his chiseled jaw, and he returned the greeting. “Miss Mano,” he said in what sounded a more pleasant voice than he had just used with Aika. “I don’t know how many times I’ve told you, it’s ‘Mister’. I’m no Doctor yet – that dissertation still keeps slipping away from me even after all these years.”
“It’s close enough for me,” the girl said with a big, bright smile. Aika almost stared at her face. She wasn’t sure how someone dared talk in such a cute tone around here, and the smile with the white dress even made her look almost angelic.
She glanced over at Aika, her expression changing slightly to one Aika immediately took to mean
‘Stay quiet and leave this to me’, before turning the smile back on the principal. “Were you and Aika-chan here just having a little talk?” Her eyes fluttered down to the notepad the man still held in his sweaty hands, and when he looked down as well his expression seemed almost surprised at what he found.
“Yes…” he said, composing himself. “Yes we were. I found Miss Mitsui loitering in the hall when she should be in class, and was writing her a detention.”
“Was she?” Mano asked, giving a look of exaggerated, yet still authentic-looking, surprise. “Did you check for her hall pass?”
“Well I asked her for one…” the man responded, becoming a little shaken again, and he watched as Mano reached into Aika’s jacket – making her twitch a little as if she was being violated – and pulled out a small card. Aika found herself staring at it as wide-eyed as the principal.
“Here you go~” the girl said, handing him the card, and he gripped it lightly between two fingers, turning it around enough to see that it was indeed authentic.
“Very well,” he said, the shaken feeling seeming to have migrated to his core. “Carry on then.” Even though he spoke to Aika, his eyes didn’t seem to focus anywhere as he turned back down the hall. “Be sure to hurry back to your classes.”
When
Mister Nguyen vanished from sight around a far corner, Aika turned a flabbergasted face to Mano, whose smile was still present, if not quite as bright as when she spoke to the principal. “Such a sweet old man, don’t you think?” she pondered, as she tucked the hall pass card into Aika’s jacket pocket. Aika was braced for the feeling of violation this time, even if she still wasn’t crazy about it. “Gets a bit cranky though if you’re out here without one of those. Best to make sure and have one with you at all times.” She caught Aika’s eyes as she finished, and Aika laid her hand to her pocket as she understood the message.
“Um…” Aika began uncertainly, “Thank you? I guess.”
“Thank me for what?” Mano replied, smiling, and she hooked her arm into Aika’s to escort her down the hall toward her classroom. Aika flushed in embarrassment when they began walking, looking anxiously around her especially when they passed the small glass-windowed doors. She wasn’t really sure what would happen if someone caught her strolling down the hall arm-in-arm with a girl dressed like a princess… even if she was a fourth-year.
She forced the girl to a stop before they reached the door to her class, and quickly said, “I’ll be fine from here,” straightening her jacket and pulling its collar back up.
“Okay then,” Mano acceded. “Take care!” And with that and a whirl of the hem of her dress, she strolled back down the hallway.
Aika found herself staring dumbfounded after the Contact for a moment, before shaking herself and slipping in the door to join her class.
She saw Miyabi in last period as usual, but the girl seemed distracted by something the whole time, and since Aika herself was quite distracted by events in the last twenty-four hours, the two barely made eye contact the whole class. Also, after the final bell, Miyabi had somehow slipped out of the classroom before Aika even left her seat, causing her to walk by herself toward the front gate. As she watched the other students filing or playing around her, she realized she was observing them from a different point-of-view than she had just yesterday or even this morning. Some she regarded easily as friends, but others she suspected if they might not be enemies.
Before she reached the door, she heard her name called from behind, and paused to wait as Koharu ran up to join her. “Hey, how are you doing?” the girl asked, laying a hand on her arm. Aika pulled back a bit remembering Mano’s rather unexpected actions earlier, and Koharu’s look of concern deepened.
“I’m sorry…” Aika replied, brushing the back of the other’s hand with her own. “I didn’t mean that.”
Koharu looked a bit skeptical, but the two headed out the door toward the gate. “Is it all right if I come over today?” she asked. “I think you could use some company.”
“Um…” Aika said, not really feeling comfortable to have someone over right now, especially with what she had hidden in her room. “I dunno…”
“C’mon!” Koharu pressed, giving her a friendly bump. “I really don’t wanna leave you alone right now.”
“I’m fine, really,” Aika responded. She caught a glimpse of white out of the corner of her eye and halted.
“What is it?” Koharu asked, looking around.
Aika looked around as well, but couldn’t see anything any longer. The girl really must just show up when you need her.
“Hey you two!” came a voice from behind them, and despite herself Aika felt her cheeks immediately flush. Hadn’t enough stuff happened today that she’d be over silly things like that??
Koharu turned to face the new arrivals, and when Aika didn’t turn along with her the other girl spun her around, making her nearly lose her balance. She gave the girl a glare until she realized what she was doing, then turned to the three girls in front of them and lowered her head to hide that damned blush.
“Mr. Yamada’s class was such a drag, wasn’t it?” the tallest, one Maimi Yajima, commented idly to Koharu. “I can’t believe they make us do something like that at the end of the day. I mean, we can’t even sleep if we don’t wanna be pointed out in front of the whole class and embarrassed! And of course
that can’t happen to our reputations.”
Koharu nodded, though by her expression Aika wondered if the girl was paying attention to anything the other said. She knew Koharu for one wasn’t always concerned about upholding this “reputation” these girls kept going on about. Self-consciously, Aika glanced around again to make sure there were no more glimpses of white anywhere nearby. It was clearing out pretty well actually – most students couldn’t wait to get off the school grounds at the end of the day.
“Sorry guys,” Koharu said. “Aika-chan here has… something… going on, and we were just about to head to—”
“You wanna go hang out somewhere?” one of the shorter ones, Saki Shimizu, asked as she crouched down to tie her shoe. “We were thinking of getting a bite to eat before—”
“Oh you don’t wanna tell ‘em like that!” Maimi said, leaning down on Saki’s shoulder and making her nearly tip over. Saki deftly kept her balance though, something Aika thought expected of the Captain of WH High’s cheerleading and dance squad. The other two weren’t part of the squad though – Maimi’s position as leader of the track team kept her too busy to take on another activity, although Aika knew she was a good enough dancer she likely could have easily made the squad. As Aika noticed the look that the two shared with each other, she thought the advantage of having its Captain as her girlfriend might have helped a bit too.
Aika didn’t spend too long looking at those two, as usual having a tough time keeping her eyes off the third of their little preppy mini-gang, Momoko Tsugunaga. She didn’t have the accomplishments of the others, but was a childhood friend of Saki’s, so the two of them had always hung out together. And now, of course, since Saki and Maimi were going out, all three of them were normally inseparable.
“I mean it guys,” Koharu said, taking Aika’s arm as if to pull her away. “This really isn’t a good time.”
“Saki-chan got invited to UFO!” Momoko crowed, and Aika felt herself stuck in place by the sound of the girl’s high trill.
“Oh?” Aika asked, smiling at the girl who was now looking back at her, pleased at the interest. She did her best to ignore Koharu’s tugging on her arm.
“Take it easy, Momo,” Saki said in a calm voice. “It isn’t that big a deal.”
“Sure it is!” Maimi said, standing behind her girlfriend proudly and preening as if showing off a trophy. “You know, I hear they may be close to signing a record deal!”
“Please…” Koharu said, coughing out a laugh. She was clearly not impressed, though apparently at least resigned herself that Aika wasn’t moving. “If they did all the record deals the rumors said, they’d have gone double plat by now!”
“Hate to say it sweetheart, but the girl’s got a point,” Saki said, grinning as she finished with her shoe, but sat back on the fence behind her. Despite her words, Maimi glared at Koharu for making her look bad, and in front of her girlfriend no less.
“So anyway,” Saki continued, looking between the two before her. “As I was saying, we were gonna go grab a bite. Wanna come along?”
“I just really don’t think…” Koharu said, glancing over hesitantly at Aika.
“It’d be great to have you with us!” Momoko said cheerfully, still sharing Aika’s gaze.
Feeling her resolve leaving her, Aika was just about to agree, when the events of the day somehow came crashing back to her. “…Sorry guys,” she said, clutching at Koharu’s arm as if afraid she would fall. A part of her couldn’t believe she was turning them down… or more precisely… turning Momoko down. “We really have things to do. You have fun though. Tell us all about it tomorrow?”
Her last comment was fairly obviously directed toward Momoko, but it was Maimi who responded. The girl had seemed to lose her ire, falling back into her usual friendly disposition. “Sure. Well, we’d better get going. Don’t have much time, and don’t wanna be late!” And with that she dragged Saki up the curb and after her. Giving a shrug and a smile to Aika, Momoko followed the two as well.
As Aika and Koharu began walking side-by-side toward her house, Aika let out a very long sigh.
Best to not get involved with them anyway, she thought to herself.
Cause I don’t really want them
getting involved with whatever it is I’ll
be doing from now on. Those girls had potential. They’d be going places. Someone like her would drag them down. She glanced at Koharu, realizing as they were walking that even though she never agreed to have the girl over, that was where they were headed anyway.
“Koha-chan,” she said, pulling away slightly. “I think it’d be best if you—”
“Wait,” Koharu said, pulling Aika to a quick stop. “Do you hear something?”
Aika looked around. There was an alley that ran between two houses on their right, and the other side of the street was silent, the iron gates in front of the doors to each house all closed and locked. Then she blinked at the house to the left of the alley, recognizing it. She’d totally not been paying attention to where they were walking. That was something that’d have to change.
“I don’t hear anyth—” she began, but then a short cry came from the house where Chinami and her family lived.
“Do you think…” Koharu began, but Aika took her hand and pulled her along as she leapt up the steps.
“Chinami!!” she yelled, as the two burst into the door. As she did so, Aika felt herself missing the weapon that was stashed in the top drawer of her dresser back home.
Topic: City of Angels (Chapter 15 on 10/20) (Read 32143 times)